Orlando Wetlands Park

Florida Crested Caracara

Today the plan was to kayak Haulover Canal. Guess what...Did not do it. The marine forecast had the waters of intra-coastal as choppy and that was enough to make me change the plan. But wanted to go to a different place, a new place. The problem is that we have been in most of the nearby rivers recently so decided to go for a walk. My job takes me to different places and during one of my working days drove by a sign that said "Orlando Wetlands Park". A little web research to learn about it and that was enough for me. What a place!!!!! The opening pic features a pair of Crested Caracaras, which was a nice surprise, a new wildlife star for this blog. We debated between eagle, osprey, young vulture, and it was not until a nice couple with a British accent came that we learned what was it. The gentleman told us the Ranger let them know where to find the Caracara. More to come about this.

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

Where is it? Here is a link to the Orlando Wetlands Park. It contain information, directions, and more. I am going to keep this simple since have over 60 pics to post and do not want to bore you to death with my sub par narrative skills. So check the link for the information about the park.

A flock of coots, and a gator, swim at the water of the Orlando Wetlands Park

Red Shouldered Hawk

The first time I heard about this place was in Dave's Yak Tales but did not put too much attention since I was more interested in kayaking place. Then I read about it at another blog, Pejorative Jinx. There are links to both blogs in the links sections. When I finally saw that it was just 10 ~15 minutes away from home told to myself..."have to go there". I do not regret the decision. I apologize in advance for the pics not being as sharp as we wished but it was a gray day and that did not help. One very important thing I want to tell you. There are maps in the park to help organize your visit. The map is divided in cells. Take a few minutes and read it before you start. That is going to help you to enjoy the visit. Follow the birding trail, red dash lines, to maximize the birds sightings. We started walking without taking the time to look at the map and ended up walking around Lake Searcy and then into the birding trail. Not that we regret it but there was not too much to shoot pics around Lake Searcy.

Royal Tern flying away with a catch!!!!!

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Did mention about the map's cells divisions. I am going to make reference to that now. We were walking to the West  in the trail between cells 17 and 16A. It was a thrill. Gators at both side of the trail, most of them small ones, and even one in the middle of it. It was crossing from North to South. I saw it and told my wife if she had an idea how to walk by the gator in the middle of the trail. She was not expecting to see one gator walking around like that but recovered from the initial "What the heck?" and shoot a pic. Good she did that because the gator sensed us and speed up to the water. By the way, we lost count on how many gators we saw and more than one crossed the trails in front of us so watch your steps and mind your surroundings. Not that a gator is going to attack you but you will have less scary moments. It gets under your skin when you are walking enjoying the view and suddenly a reptile like a gator comes out of nowhere with a splash at the end.

Gator crosses the trail at the Orlando Wetlands Park

Crested Caracaras

Referencing the map's cells one more time, coming out of the trail mentioned in the previous paragraph a big brown bird with a white tail flew near us to the trees to the East side of the next trail. Thought that it was an eagle because the white tail but then saw white tips in the feathers. Huh??? Asked my wife if she recognized the bird and she mentioned that maybe it was a young vulture since it was hanging out with other vultures. Then saw that another bird was in the tree with where the flying one perched. Wifey started shooting pics and trying to identify the bird. It was then when the nice couple with the British accent came and told us about what the Ranger said. It seems like the Crested Caracaras are breeding and that is their spot. If you follow the map, the birds were in that spot North and West of the trail between cells 17 and 16A. To be more specific, if you localize the trail going West between cells 13 and 14, the Caracaras were in the middle from where that trails begins and the other one between 17 and 16A ends. Hope I am not confusing you. Let me share a few more pics of the Crested Caracaras before we move on. I am very sorry the pics cannot show you how beautiful these birds really are. It was a dark gray day and still have to learn how to deal with those kind of days.

Crested Caracara flying

Crested Caracaras...told you they were breeding. Did not I?

Crested Caracara

Crested Caracara color patterns...White feathers in wings and tail.

Did You Know That? From the Cornell Web site; The Crested Caracara is a tropical falcon version of a vulture. can only be seeing in the USA in the states of Florida, Texas, and Arizona. It likes the open country and hangs out with vultures. It is also known as the Mexican Eagle and even when it looks like a long legged hawk and it is associated with vultures, is actually in the same family as the falcons.

Crested Caracara

Bald Eagle

After the Caracaras we had a blast with another raptor, this time the American Bald Eagle. Wifey was shooting pics at Cattle Egrets in the birding trail between cells 13 and 14 and I was behind her watching for gators. Looking ahead on the trail saw a big bird with a white head on the trail. Was able to ID it as the eagle and walked as quick as I was able to do to let my wife know. But the eagle saw me, or maybe saw my wife, and looked at us. I pointed it to wifey that was able to shoot a pic before the eagle flew away with a dead coot on its talons. Luckily it perched at the top of a burnt palm tree and then continue feasting on its kill. Another first for us. We had never seen an eagle eating something and it was kind of surprising. I was expecting a fish but when saw the feathers flying away every time the eagle lifted its beak realized that it was not a fish. My wife was able to ID the victim as a coot.

Bald Eagle eats its kill. Can you see the feathers going away with the wind?

We followed the red marked birding trail in the map back to the parking lot and finished our three our hike at 1:00PM. Wifey was tired and grumpy. The last time she walked that long was probably in a shopping mall more than a year ago. but do not tell her I said that. Well, enough. Here are the pics of what we saw today. Will group first all the gators, the rest will be in the same order we saw them. Hope you like them.

Gator swims at Lake Searcy

Sleeping beauty?

And now the rest of the pics of what we saw today. We missed some shots at Wood Storks, Pileated Woodpeckers, Turtles, and some more I cannot remember now.

Coots

Cardinal - Female

Black & White Warbler

Cardinal

Moorhen

Little Blue Heron - Juvenile

Great Egret

Glossy Ibis

Tri-Colored Heron

  

A flock of coots flying away

 

Crested Caracara

Crested Caracara

Crested Caracara

Orlando Wetlands Park

Savannah Sparrow

Cattle Egret

Cattle Egret

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

Little Blue Heron

Red Shouldered Hawk

Black -Bellied Whistling Duck

  

Black-Bellied Whistling Duck

Great Blue Heron and coots

Ibis

Limpkin

Tri-Colored Heron

Moorhen

Coots

And now, that is it for this one. Hope you like it. I expect to be back in the water a week from today, meaning our next post will most likely involve some underwater pics. My repaired digital camera came back a week ago. Thanks for reading and see you next week on another Views From Our Kayak.

Orlando Wetlands Park